Konstantin Malofeyev’s foundation funds orphanages in occupied Ukraine. He denies that a child-removal program there is a war crime: “All of this is fake.”
The country needs a free and fair election to escape Western sanctions. But familiar concerns about government repression and ballot rigging are dogging the vote.
Leaders of Brazil, India, China and South Africa addressed other topics, but Russia’s president, unable to attend in person because he is wanted for war crimes, put the war in Ukraine at center stage in the meeting.